America’s intelligence community will seek to determine whether the storage of official documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate posed a national security threat.
Some of the documents were seized by the FBI during a raid of Trump’s home this month.
On Friday, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers in a letter that her office will lead an “assessment of the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents,” according to Politico.
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) are working together to facilitate a classification review of relevant materials, including those recovered during the search,” Haines wrote.
Reps. Carolyn Maloney of New York and Adam Schiff of California had asked for the review on Aug. 13, The Washington Post reported. The Democrats said “former President Trump’s conduct has potentially put our national security at grave risk.”
Maloney and Schiff released a joint statement in response to Haines’ letter.
“We are pleased that in response to our inquiry, Director Haines has confirmed that the Intelligence Community and Department of Justice are assessing the damage caused by the improper storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago,” they said in the statement.
“The DOJ affidavit, partially unsealed yesterday, affirms our grave concern that among the documents stored at Mar-a-Lago were those that could endanger human sources,” they said, referring to the heavily redacted affidavit that was the legal basis for the raid.
‘It is critical that the IC move swiftly to assess and, if necessary, to mitigate the damage done — a process that should proceed in parallel with DOJ’s criminal investigation.”
Did Trump’s documents pose a national security risk?
Politico reported that the review will determine who had access to which documents and whether classified material has been compromised.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has called for a similar assessment and has asked for access to the documents that were seized in the raid. The request came from Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who chairs the panel, and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, its vice chair.
In a statement on Saturday, Rubio indicated that the DOJ had not replied.“The Senate Intelligence Committee is still waiting for information from the Department of Justice about the specific intelligence documents seized from Mar-a-Lago and what necessitated an unprecedented search warrant on President Trump’s residence,” Rubio said.
The redacted copy of the DOJ affidavit said that documents turned over from Mar-a-Lago in January included 67 marked as “confidential,” 92 as “secret” and 25 as “top secret.” Trump has said the documents in his possession were declassified.
On Saturday, the former president continued to criticize the raid in posts on his Truth Social platform.
“The Raid on my home, Mar-a-Lago, is one of the most egregious assaults on democracy in the history of our Country which is, by the way, going to places, in a very bad way, it has never seen before!” he wrote.
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